The Tupac Murder Confession That Led Las Vegas Police to Raid Gangster Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis 

He recalled checking in at the Caesars Palace Resort and Casino around 5 PM — “we laid back, popped a few bottles, went down to the casino and started gambling big” — before the rest of his crew of Crips arrived in town.

In the 18-person deep entourage was his nephew Baby Lane, he wrote — a “6’3” thug “with an athletic build; he was slim but muscular, a one-punch knockout master.”

While Baby Lane would ultimately pull the trigger on Tupac, Keffe D described his nephew as a “good dude with a big heart.”

After what would be Tyson’s final heavyweight championship victory, Keffe and his posse headed to the prearranged meeting place.

“Little by little everybody started showing up except my nephew,” Keffe D recalled. “Then, some 118 East Coast Crips came and told us that they saw some Death Row n—– jump my nephew down by the casino.”

He suggested the smackdown was in retaliation for a weeks-prior incident at Lakewood Mall, in Calif., during which Baby Lane snatched a gold necklace of another gangster, Trevon Lane — which had been a personal gift from Suge.

Wrote Keffe D: “We rushed up out of the cafe and went to find Baby Lane. We saw him inside the MGM minutes after they had jumped him. By the time we got there Suge, Pac and their crew had already left.”

“When I asked him what happened, he said, “Them Death Row n—– rushed me. One of them n—– from the Lakewood Mall was running with the boy that started that s—.”

The crew immediately decided they were determined to handle the matter themselves, he said.

We couldn’t let no record company studio gangsters do us like that. Had they lost their f—— rapping’ a– minds? On top of that, Puffy had already talked to em about helping him out with the problem he was having with them n—–. That was a double whammy! Then you add on top of that the fact that we helped Suge with the money to get his record business going, And the n—- gonna bite the hands that fed him? Add insult to injury cause Suge still hasn’t paid Boss Man his money back, got too big for his britches and stopped taking Boss Man’s calls. Strike three honey, you’re out!!!

Keffe D said his crew knew Suge and followers were headed to Club 662 for a Death Row after-fight party — and “Pac (was) supported be there too.”

“The intelligence was from reliable source as some of the younger homeys from our set had been stationed in Vegas selling dope — a satellite operations of sorts,” he added.

“Alright homeys,” Keffe D commanded. “That’s where we’re going then, Club 662.”

South Side had not gone down to Vegas thinking about Marion ‘Suge’ Knight or Tupac Shakur; we were out there to do what he had been doing in Vegas for years: eat, drink. And be merry! When conversations would come up about a million-dollar bounty on the heads of Suge Knight and Tupac Skater, that was business. But after Tupac, Suge and then Death Row n—– jumped on my nephew Baby Lane, the s— became ominously personal.

Keffe D said he connected with a “big-time New York player, pimp and hustler” and jumped into his car at valet, asking the rapper Foxy Brown to exit.

Inside, the car was a hidden compartment that “he opened up, reached in, and pulled a black .40 Block out. He turned to me and said, ‘It’s time to get the money.’ Zip [a New York based pal] handed me the 17-shot pistol which I promptly put down the back waist of my pants.”

With weapon in hand, Keffe D told his crew: “Get in the car you came in, let’s roll.”

They left the casino parking lot and headed directly to Club 662 where, according to Keffe D, they laid in wait in the back parking lot.

Their intent was obvious, Keffe acknowledged.

We had three vehicles, three to four people in each, ready to burn their a—- up. My crew was Do or Die. All my young games had already been shot at least once, so their street experience turned them into some stone cold killers. They learned not to wait to get shot but to be the shooter. They had the mentality of, ‘It’s either them or me, and it’s ain’t gonna be me.’

Keffe D and his crew waited for an hour and a half without any sign of the Knight or Tupac before he ordered them to “move out.”

“One-by-one, the drivers started their engines and slowly crept out of the back parking lot,” he recounted.

He said it was “lucky” that Tupac and Suge failed to show because “it would have been like Al Capone’s Valentine’s Day Massacre if they had.”

At the Liquor Barn, Keffe D had become concerned that some of whom he was rolling with were too scared to carry out the mission.

So, Keffe D jumped in the front seat of another car in the squad, the Cadillac.

“I pulled out the Block that Zip had given me and tossed it in the backseat,” he described.

“After our pit stop at the Liquor Barn, we continued toward the Carriage House. As we were driving, the two vehicles that were with us got caught at the traffic light, but we kept rolling.

“A few blocks down we were sitting at the light and who the f— did we see? The Death Row caravan hit the concern with Tupac hanging out the window of a Black, luxury BMW waving to his fans. People on the streets were screaming, ‘Tupac! Tupac! We love you Tupac!’”

Keffe D recalled:

Bubble Up busted a U-Turn and hit the gutter lane on their a—-. As they sat in traffic, we slowly rolled past the long line of luxury cars they had in the caravan, looking into each one until we pulled up to the front vehicle and found who we were seeking.

Like two rams locking horns, Suge and I looked each other dead in the eye. Our eyes locked. The terrified expression on Suge’s face read: “Damn. Them n—–!’ No words exchanged, the time for talking had passed, the s— was about to go down!

“The next few seconds happened so quickly,” Keffe D explained. “The s— was on!”

He added: “Tupac made an erratic move and began to reach down beneath his seat. It was the first and only time in my life that I could relate to the police command, ‘Keep your hands where I can see them.’ Instead, Pac pulled out a strap, that’s when the fireworks started. One of my guys from the backseat grabbed the Glock and started busting; back.”

Based on Keffe’s D’s account, the two assailants in the back were Baby Lane and Freaky, although, in the book, he never identified the shooter as either.

“The first shot skinned Suge in his head,” Keffe D said.

“I heard stories that Suge supposedly used Tupac as a shield when the bullets started flying. But that’s some bull—. Suge was already wounded; he was the first one that got touched.”

As the rounds continued flying, Keffe D ducked down so that he wouldn’t get hit.

When the shooting stopped, we boned out, and a white Chrysler Sebring full of young ladies was following us. Their window quickly got shot out, so they stopped. The interesting thing to me was with all them rough a– n—– they were supposed to have with them, none of them did a damn thing and tied to come after us. There were a lot of shots let off in both directions.

When the shots settled, Keffe D said, a couple of people in their car had fragments and glass in their hair – but none had been hit.

While Suge made a U-Turn back onto the Las Vegas Strip, Keffe D and his crew abandoned their Cadillac for fear police — and others in the Death Row crew — would be on the lookout.

Having ditched the car, they absconded on foot and watched as two ambulances passed by right in front of them on the Strip: the first with Tupac in it and the medics working frantically to provide medical attention.

A second, not too far behind, had Suge in it.

Gloated Keffe D: “The moral of the story, real Gangsters are nothing to f— with!”

It’s a ruthless way of life, one that I’ve lived for the majority of my life. Some gangster rappers have glamorized and glorified the life like it’s cool and something to strive for. They have a lot of people’s minds twisted. The truth of the matter is gang bangin’ and acting like a thug ain’t no joke.

“For us, Vegas was another day at the office,” he added. “It may sound cold-hearted, but from a street perspective, the killings of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls would be considered nothing more than collateral damage. As a result, the hip-hop world has lost two of its most talented and revered musical artists and icons.

“At this point in my life, I can say I have a deep sense of remorse for what happened to Tupac. He was a talented artist with tons of potential to impact the world. I hate that Tupac’s family, friends and fans, especially his mother, Afeni Shakur, had to go through the pain of losing her son. It’s terrible losing people like that; I know the pain too well.

“However, I stand firm to the point that Tupac, Suge Knight and the rest of the n—– didn’t have any business putting their hands on my beloved nephew, Baby Lane. Period. Then jumping on my nephew gave us the ultimate green light to do something to their a–.”

“South Side Crips earned some stripes on the collar from street n—– due to the Tupac shooting,” Keffe D concluded.

“But it generated too much attention and put us under a microscope by law enforcement that would not cease and eventually brought us down. It was a big loss for everybody involved.”

The next day, on the drive back to Los Angeles, Keffe D “laced” his nephew Bobby Lane “with the game.”

He told him: “Don’t tell nobody what happened! Not even your mama!!! Don’t say a motherf—— thing.

Though Keffe D never named Baby Lane in COMPTON STREET LEGEND as pulling the trigger, he tattled elsewhere.

In one confession on the documentary Murder Rap, Keffe D elaborated and said he passed the gun to his friend DeAndre “Dre” Smith, who refused to take it.

Describing the killing, he said: “I gave it (a gun) to Dre and Dre was like ‘no, no, no’ and Lane was like – popped the dudes.

“He leaned over and rolled down the window and popped them.”

What’s more, during a recorded interview with LAPD homicide officer Greg Kading and federal agents in 2019, Keffe D ratted out Baby Lane to save himself from drug charges.